Cuba, Part 2

Enough of the details about licenses and currency (Part 1 of Cuba) - let's get to the adventure part. ;)

Day 1: NY to Habana

The flight is a flight. We arrive mid-afternoon and do the customs/ currency/ taxi to city stuff. Get checked into our casa particular. Boring stuff.

1st casa in havana had a sitting room, so when KK would sleep Dave and I could hang out - too bad KK didn't sleep

We're staying in Centro Habana, which is much poorer and dilapidated than I expected. Our street has piles of trash, stagnant water, skeletal dogs, ruins of buildings. There are few cars on the street, so people just walk in the middle of the road.

centro streetscape

Day 2: Habana Vieja

We spend most of the day in Habana Vieja, which is better restored and maintained than Centro. A cruise ship docks, and then it feels like Disneyland. Glad we're staying in Centro.

restored architecture

Low point of the day was food. We're starving by mid-day, but most of the options are the tourist traps, which just aren't our speed (and are probably government owned). Ended up at a cafe that had literally 2 choices: hamburger or ham sandwich. The hamburger was DISGUSTING.

On the bright side, KK discovers coconut ice milk and I discover ropa vieja (for dinner).

that's ok mom i'll just eat ice cream

Day 2: More Habana

Today got easier - my Spanish is coming back, we trolled the guidebooks and dropped a bunch of pins on Maps.Me to mark paladar/restaurant options, and it doesn't feel as stiflingly hot.

old buildings off the Malecon, the famous sea-side drive

Spend the morning playing in a little playground. I talk with the attendant for a long while about this and that, while KK plays with a little boy who was there with his grandparents because his mom was home with the new baby. (Some things are the same everywhere.)

wheee!

After dinner, Dave brings some frisbees to a local park and starts throwing with the young'uns. When it was time to leave, though, one of the older guys seems upset that there wasn't a frisbee for each of the group, saying that it would be unfair to give it to only one. Kind of an interesting and unexpected response.

universal language of frisbee

Day 3: Habana to Viñales

Hire a car and drive 2.5 hours to Viñales, a small town west of Havana, the center of outdoor activities in Cuba (as much as there is one).

random rural home

Get checked into our casa.

1st casa in vinales, where we stayed the longest

Pick a restaurant because it advertised 2 CUC mojitos. ;) We chat with the friendly restaurant host, Yande. He mentions he has a second job and Dave has to ask what it is before Yande says he's a hiking guide, and even then he doesn't offer to guide us. (Overall, the lack of hustlers (jinteros) in Viñales is striking.)

KK plays at the front of the restaurant with a random passerby who stops to talk to Yande. Soon she's handing out stickers and rolling a tennis ball back and forth while Dave and I enjoy our meal in peace.

don't ask how dirty she got...

Cuba is the most child-friendly country I've visited. Everywhere we went, Cubans were welcome and accommodating to children. There isn't a ton of kid-specific infrastructure in Cuba - they're considered people like any other person and do whatever the adults were doing. And it seems like all adults look out for the little ones. One time, KK tripped and fell, and some random middle-aged Cuban farmer got to her before I did. Musicians would hand her maracas and encourage her to play and dance while Dave and I sat nearby.

Day 4: Climbing!

Viñales has the best climbing in the Carribean, maybe the best in Latin America (right up there with Potrero Chico). We're climbing with a kid, and we're on vacation and have only shoes, buuuttt...

...we have a great time. Our guide, Fidel, picked a crag that was flat and shady at the base, so KK could play while Dave and I climbed. Incredibly, Fidel had a child-sized harness, so KK had her first roped climb on rock!

will climb for Clif Bars

Climbing is legal in Cuba, if you have a government guide, and there are no government guides. It's theoretically possible to import gear, if you go through the proper government channels, which don't actually exist.

Thus, in practice, the development and preservation of these incredible climbing areas rely on the dedication of local Cuban climbers on the ground and whatever donations they receive from abroad. In advance, we researched the best way to donate gear to make sure it goes to climbers and doesn't get used as farm equipment and packed a bag of gear collected from our Ithaca climbing community.

sharing is caring

Day 5: Cueva de la Vaca

Our casa hosts in Viñales are Marisol and Juan, a late middle-aged couple, and their daughter Yudi, who is about our age. Marisol is extremely talkative and friendly - too bad I can only understand every other word, and Dave understands her every 5th word! She always spends some time talking with/at us in her beautiful patio after breakfast, yelling for me to translate when Dave gets lost.

the 1st casa in vinales had a BEAUTIFUL patio/garden, with banana and coffee trees, tropical flowers, etc

After a lazy morning, we walk up to Cueva de la Vaca, an easily explored cave outside town.

cow cave. you walk by a lot of cows to get there.

Day 6: Beach! Cayo Jutías

Marisol hires a driver to take us to Cayo Jutías, a beach on the northern coast of Cuba. Eloha has a baby son, 8 months, but we don't talk much more than that - it's a rough trip. The car is a seatbelt-less Lada about my age that sounds like a lawnmower. Doesn't matter that the Lada doesn't go fast; the roads are SO BAD in places that we crawl along at lawnmower speed. Back windows don't roll down without the wrench Eloha keeps in the glove box, so we asphyxiate on fumes for the first part of the drive.

wheeee!

At one point, we pick up a hitchhiking police officer. Because why not?

...oh, ok.

The beach wasn't the most incredible beach I've visited, and it got really crowded as the minibuses and hired cars arrived, but coming from Upstate NY in March... it was heaven.

ahhhhhhh

Day 7: Cueva Larga

We meet up with a random climber who found us, looking for partners, while we were climbing with Fidel. We go to Cueva Larga, not really a cave as the top is open, more like a narrow chasm in the incredible cliffs all around Viñales.

cueva larga

I stay on kid duty most of the day, sneaking in 1 climb and otherwise pointing out all of amazing things in the cave, like snail shells and lizards.

hi :) 

The climbing is just so. good. here. I would definitely come back (after I visit all the other places on my bucket list, of course).

Day 8 - Los Acuáticos

Originally, we weren't sure if we would stay in Viñales so long, or perhaps move on to Trinidad, so we only booked 3 nights at Marisol's. She had vacancy 2 more nights, but for our last night in Viñales, we needed to move to her next door neighbor's house.

2nd casa in vinales

Our Cuban acquaintance, Yande, from the restaurant on our first night in Viñales guides us up to Los Acuáticos, an old colony built around hot springs. It's a super easy walk, we definitely don't need a guide, but it's nice to chat with a local who's our age (and had a daughter a few years older than KK).

checking out a very cool "undiscovered" (i.e. not in the guidebooks) cave

Unfortunately, on the way up, I got stung by wasps. Kind of scary - it took 3 Benadryl to keep the swelling under control, and even then, my mouth/nose broke out in hives. Might be time to get an Epipen...

serious ouch

Yande felt so bad about the sting, but it didn't spoil the day. Just made it a little sleepy and loopy (yay Benadryl!).

views of the mogotes - hills that look like they were formed by a preschooler with playdoh

Day 9: Viñales to Habana

It takes a while to convince Marisol that yes, we do want a vehicle with seat belts to drive us to Habana, even if that means getting a nicer car and getting it all to ourselves. It's true that it's astronomically expensive for a Cuban, but, having already made the journey once, I know that the highway is straight and empty, and the driver will go as fast as the vehicle will allow.

We say good bye to Marisol, Yudi, and Juan and Viñales in general. I hope I'll be back, someday.

adios to our host family

Uneventful drive to Havana deposits us at a casa in an old colonial house with a gorgeous interior courtyard and enormous room.

last night in havana (sounds like a movie title)

After dinner, on a whim, I ask Dave if we can walk past the synagogue (actually, "a" synagogue - there are 3 in Havana). I had read a little bit about the Jews of Cuba and was interested to see for myself. Turns out, it's the first night of Purim! Which I admit I forgot - I knew Purim was happening while we were away, but by the last night of the trip, I had completely lost track of the days.

So that's how we ended up in an Orthodox shul drinking clear rum straight from plastic cups while watching kids scamper after the spilled contents of a piñata.

because rum hangovers on travel days are GREAT

Day 10: Habana to NY

It was a travel day. Meh. No problems coming back through customs, except the aforementioned boot washing. Hey, we'll do our part to protect American agriculture!

entering Florida

We've been back a month; I've been working on these trip reports in 10 minute increments in the wee early hours of the morning, before the family gets up. So if the story seems dry and disjointed, well, at least it got written! My future self will appreciate it.

Saved the best for last - here's the photo album.